Newfound Independency
by CC333
Summary: Numbuh 362 is decommomissioned and Numbuh Five is chosen to step up. Where does that leave the rest of the team to stand? These are the adventures of Hoagie P Gilligan Junior and the journey he takes with his newfound independency. *2/5* slight 3/4
1. Prologue

Newfound Independency

By CC333

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Codename: Kids Next Door.**_

Tears were shed the day of Abigail's Inauguration. Every operative that could make it gathered at the moon base to wish Rachel farewell. She had been their role-model, their ultimate leader. And now she was going to be decommissioned. As thousands of kids tried to press against the glass above that surrounded the decommissioning chamber, she entered. They watched her face. It was obvious that she had been crying, but now she was wearing a small smile. Perhaps she was trying to be strong for all of her fellow friends, or maybe she was simply elated to finally not have so much stress upon her. She would be free soon.

No one knew who exactly broke first, but as soon as she crossed the cold floor and sat down in the seat she would soon be strapped into, the sudden cries of a girl could be heard in the massive crowd. This set off a chain reaction and sooner or later, no operative in the room had a dry eye. The leather belts strapped around her wrists and ankles were tightened by a member decommissioning squad. The boy turned his head away, probably hating himself for assisting in the job that had to be done. Numbuh 86, Fanny, stood in the control center. If anyone was crying the most, it would have been her. It must've been killing her on the inside to have to do this.

Numbuh Two gazed from the back of the crowd, silent tears streaming from his goggles. Leaning against the back wall, he looked forward to his right to see Numbuh Five, along with a few other girls and boys, sitting on one of the large main tree branches that ran through whole moon-base. He couldn't see her face, but he knew it was probably damp and dark from the shadow cast by her hat and the tears she probably would never admit to. Numbuh Three and Numbuh Four stood next to each other in the front of the crowd. Or rather, Numbuh Four stood as he held Numbuh Three up. She was balling, the tears an endless river down her face. Trying to be tough for her, he only allowed a single tear to escape from beneath the blonde hair that covered his eyes. Fanny removed her hands from her face and looked down at Rachel, who was calm as ever, her eyes closed and her back resting against the seat.

"Numbuh 362,…d-do you have any…last words for the KND?", she asked, her voice breaking in the process. Rachel cleared throat and stretched her fingers, as if they were uncomfortable from being strapped, which they could have been.

"Dear fellow members of the Kids Next Door. I-I'm not what to say really. This may be the first time I have nothing to say." she said with an almost forced chuckle. It sort of helped lift the spirits of the weeping kids.

"I guess turning 13 means a lot of things, really. I have to move on to my own adventure. Sadly, it will be one without you all, but please remember that I will never forsake you. Even when I probably won't be able to remember any of you or the missions we've been through, I will always be with you. Abby," she continued. Numbuh Five rose her head to look at her to see that Numbuh 362 was looking straight at her atop the tree branch. Everyone was looking at Numbuh Five sitting above them.

"You know what you have to do. As I've told you before, you are more than capable to take over for me. I have the uttermost faith in you", she said earnestly with a smile. Abigail couldn't help but break down a bit, not sure what to say.

"Make me proud, Abigail", Numbuh 362 finished.

Abigail muttered a small 'thank you' before hopping down the tree branch and walking out of the crowded watching chamber. She always did have a knack for disappearing, but Numbuh 2 knew she'd show up sooner or later.

"Well than. I suppose we should…get started, o-okay?" Fanny spoke into the microphone again as she started to power on the machine. The crescendo of the quiet whirring turning loud forced out a whole new symphony of sobs and cries.

The machine was charged and just as always, Fanny flipped the final switch. But this time she looked away when she did it. So did every operative around the decommissioning chamber. Even Numbuh 9-film, the main cameraman for the KND Nightly News, winced when the plunger descended at lighting speeds towards her. Most decommissionings were only mentioned during the segment each night. But for an epic event such as this, it was going to be broadcasted through the network to tree houses across the world (except, of course, Sector A, who live strictly Amish lives). This was to be considered the featured segment for tonight's report.

The plunger did what it had been programmed to do. No one dared to look behind them to see what was happening, but it was hard to get rid of the muffled screams. More tears fell. Eventually, Numbuh 86 flipped the switch and the whirring slowed down to nothing. Almost as if one by one, everyone slowly opened their eyes and turned around to see their former leader being released from the chair and looking around. The familiar look of confusion was on her face. The look of recent decommissioning.

"W-where am I?", she asked to particularly no one, maybe the guard who took her gently by the arm and started to lead her to the space shuttle that would be taking home. Looking behind her, she called back "W-who are all these kids?".

A few operatives had the heart to give a small wave to her. The wave caught on like an infectious, welcomed disease and soon everyone was giving a full fledge wave to the retreating legend. She gave a confused smile and a small wave back. A little spark of hope filled the air, but it came upon all of them that the simple smile and wave was out of instinct and confusion, not out of recognition. Tears were wiped away and Rachel McKenzie was officially removed from the Kids Next Door Code Module. She was now free.

Numbuh Infinity, who no one had seen in an immeasurable length of time, suddenly appeared next to Fanny. He tapped the microphone. "Good Afternoon, fellow operatives."

A collective gasp and flittering whispers started to fill the humongous rooms. Where had he been? They all presumed he had gone into hiding from a mega ultra soopa adult on the KND Most Wanted or a very covert spy mission to unlock the secrets of Candytopia. The rumors had been getting more outrageous every month. And now he was there.

"I would like to point out that Sector A caringly sent a couple tons of home-churned ice-cream to out lovely moon-base out of respect for the resigned Numbuh 362 and it is currently waiting in the main dining hall. If you could please head there and enjoy yourselves before the inauguration. Thank you." he ended, giving his trademark smirk. Numbuh 86 regained her regular temper and was actively chewing Numbuh Infinity for using HER microphone. He didn't seem to care though, as he gazed down midnight black sunglasses at the moving kids as they began to exit the decommissioning chamber.

With a simple glance at the dark-skinned kid who was busy scanning the crowd, Hoagie knew exactly who he was looking for. He was looking for the same girl as well. As the crowd began to d0isperse, Numbuh Two made his way out of the chamber and into the main hallway, quickly replacing his hat over his auburn hair. As everyone else took a right towards the main dining hall, he turned left in the general direction of the wizby deck. He need to talk to her and had a pretty good guess were she would be.

The wizby deck happened to be one of the higher points on the moonbase and had a large glass dome surrounding it. Most kids came to either play around, though there were a few that actually came to play wizby. It happened to also be one of the most beautiful places around. The railing allowed you to hang your feet over the edge and the glass dome allowed for you to see just the edge of the glowing moon below.

He found her doing just that, swinging her feet ever so slowly over the edge while looking it the black starry sky. Utterly beautiful, the whole scene.

He took a few steps towards her.

"Erm, hey, Numbuh 5", he spoke up finally.

"Hey,…Hoagie" she said to him before taking a quick glance behind her.

He moved to sit next to, dangling his feet in the same manor.

"Soooo… nice view, huh" he said, trying to fill in the silence.

"Hoagie, lemme ask you somethin', okay?"

It surprised him, but he turned to her and nodded anyway.

"Why? Just why? Out of all the operatives in the world, she picked me. She knew my past. I just don't get it, Hoags". The look on her face was clear for once, as she had taken off her hat and set it next to her. It was a look of confusion and maybe a bit of pain.

He thought for a second before he opened his mouth to answer, "Because you're perfect".

The following short silence told him his mistake.

"I-I mean for the job, of course. I mean…well you just are. A-a leader with street and book smarts along with plenty of other skills and boatloads of common sense. Abby, you've got it all!" he winded down.

She smiled at a him grim smile. "Thanks, Numbuh Two, but…"

Hoagie stopped her before she could continue. "Don't worry. It'll work out, you'll see".

There he goes with his positive thinking again. The grim smile became just a tad bit brighter if anything.

The intercom system that ran throughout the whole base spoke up with a static-filled voice. Numbuh Infinty was announcing that "_Numbuh Five was to report immediately to Grand Hall_". She got up and brushed herself off then slapped her red hat back onto her head. "Guess that's my cue" she spoke again, offering a hand to Hoagie. He accepted it and smirked slightly as she hoisted him up from his sitting position.

He nodded in agreement before slowly following her with a secret frown on his face. Things were about to seriously change for good. Again…

_**Please take the time to express your feedback on this chapter by sending a review.**_


	2. Melted Icecream

**Newfound Independency**

**Chapter One**

**By: CC333**

He sat uncomfortably on a wooden bench pushed up against the side of the bustling room. His triple scoop of home-churned ice cream was slowly dripping onto the nearby, weathered table.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

It was such a trivial thing. Not even he himself noticed it, nor did any of the other operatives packed next to him. The air had noticeably relaxed now that they were no longer in the horrid decommissioning chamber. Regular conversation carried on, although a tad bit quieter, as if everyone in the room thought it would be disrespectful to Rachel to talk in any voice higher than such. The strangely quiet main dining hall was gradually annoying Hoagie. Usually it was filled with loud, friendly voices and plenty of laughter. He would know. This was the place he had been assigned to work at for service before graduating from cadet status.

Scanning the room, he recognized a few familiar faces in the humongous sea of children, but everything else was blurry to him. He couldn't keep his mind off of what she was enduring at the moment.

Not but a few minutes earlier had they been forced to part their separate ways. She took a vacuum capsule up to the Grand Hall and he, a short walk down a different hallway where he would enter the mega-sized dining hall.

Before the spilt, however, they had shared a final wordless goodbye. The look in each other's eyes said everything. She had to focus to see past the yellow tint of his goggles and he had to squint slightly to make out the deep outline of dark brown eyes beneath a worn red hat.

The message: I care.

Then to the random onlookers view, a simple hug. But it was so much more than that. The action was half-hearted and not very long-lived, but that was enough to plant a seed into both of their hearts. These seeds would have to battle many hardships to sprout, but they would spout none the less.

Hoagie, who had been a tad bit jumpy every since they had reached the moon base that morning, was keeping his distance away from others, not taking any chances of setting anyone else off in their sensitive state, so you can imagine the shock that pulsed through him as he received one of the rarest things in the universe. A big, fat hug from Abigail Lincoln.

His long arms wrapped awkwardly around her in the same manor hers had wrapped around his plump mid-section. A blush was creeping up to his cheeks. This would be so embarrassing if anyone they knew had seen it, but his practical thinking was been shorted out as he unconsciously squeezed back. Then they both let go and turned around, parting without another word.

He was sure he had spotted a smile smirk on her lips when they parted. Why did girls always have to be so mysterious? So spontaneous and odd. Especially her. Maybe that's how they had become best friends in the first place. They had hugged before, during times of hurt and despair. Each time had been a little bit different, the first totally throwing him off. Now he was getting better at keeping his blushing under control.

This marked the fourth Abigail Hug in the history of his life. Oddly, he hadn't been worried about girl germs or anything such as that. He shuddered. Was he already growing up?

Shaking the disturbing thoughts off, he pushed through the large flaps that opened up to the main dining hall, the new atmosphere and brighter lights greeting the young boy with gusto.

This all brings us to now. An uncomfortable, slightly annoyed boy scanning a large, endless feeling room with squinted eyes, his forgotten ice cream dripping slowly from the cone holder it patiently sat in.

Drip… Drip… Drip

He released a small, quiet sigh. He wasn't sure how he should have been feeling at the moment. Exciting for Numbuh Five for what could be the most amazing thing that would ever happen to her? Or sad? He, just like the rest of his remaining teammates, knew that she could no longer be an active member in Sector V and fulfill her role properly as Supreme Leader at the same time. She wasn't given much choice. She knew that even if she had a choice, the most responsible choice would be to leave her old sector for the good of the KND. He knew it too. And it killed him inside.

Yet, he decided to keep a happy face for her on the outside. No need for her to have cold feet. He chuckled slightly at the thought. Her? Cold feet? You could lock her in a freezer without socks and she would still never get cold feet. Her mellow, laid back attitude may have been one of the many reasons Rachel had chosen her in the first place. She was calm, practical, smart, quick thinking, independent, caring-

A few taps on his shoulder saved him from drowning in his own thoughts. As Numbuh 3 scolded him for letting his Rocky Road to melt away, he wondered silently how he could think so much about a girl. Yuck. He had never done such a thing before. He must have been more worried about this all than he thought. That or he needed more sleep. Yeah, that was probably it. People do and think crazy things when they suffer from a lack of sleep. He would need to get back home as soon as this day finally died down. He'd enter his house and have to apologize to Mom about how horribly late he would be arriving. Then he could change, prepare for bed, and settle under cool blue sheets of his barely used "home" bed, rather then his oddly comforting airplane cockpit sleeping quarters back at the tree house. He could drift off into a nice deep-

Kuki roared him back to her attention. He snapped his head back to meet her eyes. They were curious and annoyed, although also contained a small bit of excitement in them. Maybe she was excited about this all. It was a good thing to be happy for her. Not wanting his thoughts to drift back in THAT direction, he apologized and excused himself from his verbal hiding. Melted rocky road ice cream wasn't worth scolding someone about. It definitely wasn't like Kuki. Sure, she lost it a few times here and there, but never over something so unimportant such as this. Did she even like Rocky Road ice cream? Hoagie recalled her saying it even wasn't really her first choice. This was all probably a product from all the stress from the day's recent events.

He shook his head and forgave her instantly. No use getting angry back.

Absent mindedly, he wondered how Numbuh 3 was able to find him the huge room. Even though it wasn't the only dining hall on the Moonbase that was currently filled with operatives, it still felt packed. Not completely sure where he was going, he wandered across the large room, weaving through clumps of different kids from around the world, carrying on in conversations in all languages, and then out the a smaller door that stood beneath one of the many main tree branches that happened to run through the main dining hall. Once out of that door, he continued on the down a red carpeted hall, noticing the contrast between the two environments. In the dining hall, voices and laughter had wrapped everyone up, but out here, it remained much calmer. There were still a good amount of kids out there, ice cream in hand (or at least what was left of it) and whispered conversations floating up and down the corridor. Hoagie was able to make out the half hidden faces of Patton Drilvolsky and Fanny Fulbright.

He was speaking in a hushed, soft tone that Numbuh Two had no idea he had. Not bothering to try and strain his ears as he passed them, he already had a pretty good guess what the subject was about anyway. Fanny lied in a crumpled mess on the floor, her tear-stained uniform wrinkled and her hair crazier than normal. Patton hushed her gently when it seemed she was about to break out in a whole new realm of sobs. She wasn't taking this very well. Numbuh 362 must have been her best friend, not quick to judge her and her short temper. Out the corner of his eye, he spotted Patton place a reassuring hand on one of her shaking shoulders. She stopped quivering so much.

As he continued to walk down the hall, sitting, lying, and standing kids of all sorts watched him as he made his lone journey in between them. What? Was it illegal to walk in the middle of a hallway? It was unnerving, every one's eyes slowly following him. Where should he go now? His stomach churned uneasily as he rounded a corner, his slightly quickened gait slowing as he moved his hands to hold it. Nothing about him had been feeling quite in check since this morning. This sick feeling was overpowering. Maybe he could go home early and just watch a rerun of the inauguration on the KNN.

Sighing, he continued down the long hall, noticing how the carpet had given way to hard tile flooring, allowing him to hear his footsteps much clearer. This was all hurting his head. Never had he been so confused on the inside. Sure, he had come against some pretty tough problems regarding repairing the sector's transportation or making sure the weapons were in good supply, but feelings weren't as easy to deal with as mechanics and inventing. Everyone had them and each one was fragile in their own special way. You had to be carefully not to step on anyone's, but he was a clumsy boy and his lack of advanced social skills no doubt impaired him. Well, he wouldn't particularly call it a lack of social skills. After all, he did like people, and people generally liked him, even if they usually didn't catch his ingenious humor.

Why couldn't everything just be as easy as fixing up a F.L.A.P.P.U.H or changing the oil on the C.O.O.L.B.U.S?

He looked around him and noticed that there were barely any kids in the tiled hallway. As he advanced further into the moon base, less and less kids could be found sitting around. Hoagie randomly wandered about how much trouble was probably taking place down back in Earth. The adults were probably giddy with excitement, this day's events giving them a full window of opportunity. Or so they thought. What they didn't know was that they were being monitored by the KND E.I.S team, a group of specialist who almost never left the surveillance room. They went through great lengths to make sure their parents would be know about their true whereabouts, using holograms, wireless microphones, and fake report cards during the school year and fake residential camp brochures during the summer. They worked in collaboration with the spies of the Kids Next Door, being expertly specialized in knowing what, who, when, and where nearly everything was.

Numbuh Two smiled a bit as he thought about his old friend Numbuh 609, a fellow scientist who barely emerged from the room. Numbuh 609 was a short kid, not even able to match Wally in height. He sported sandy brown hair underneath a blue baseball cap and just like everyone else on the E.I.S team, he rarely came out of the surveillance room. You had to have some pretty special access to be allowed into their headquarters. Hoagie happened to have just that and was one of the few kids that had actually entered the hidden room before. He now realized that his random steps had been taking him near that exact location.

He pressed on, deciding it was now time for a long-procrastinated visit. Numbuh Two wasn't entirely sure why he tried to avoid the team. Maybe because they had this would be the third year they've tried to recruit him and this would be the third time he had refused. Why should he join a whole bunch of shadow crawlers? Sure, they knew practically every secret around the world and got a taste of infinite knowledge, not including some of the best equipment the KND could process. They just knew things. They were also very persistent, so he had to go through many lengths of work to tip-toe around them. They've tried blackmail, bribing, even a pack of ultra rare Yipper gold edition holographic cards. But he had refused them all to stick with his team.

The lights in the hallway were gradually getting dimmer as he walked on. Then, finally stopping, he scanned his surroundings before quietly knocking on the wall that stood behind his back. He tensed up as he felt the sensation of falling short after. The boy plunged into a dark tunnel without so as much as a scream.

The tunnel didn't smell as bad as it felt. It gave off the feeling of darkness and death; however it smelt like raspberries and melted chocolate. He took a large sniff in and exhaled, feeling a fraction of the stress evaporating right before him.

The fall felt endless, but it was too dark to check the PDA which contained the time and a schedule of today's events. He hoped he would get back from his little visit fast enough. Another whiff of the sweet air made him almost elated. The seconds ticked by in his head as he counted them.

Five, four, three, two, one…

**Please review. Thank you and sorry for the extended waiting period.**


	3. Numbuh Infinity

Newfound Independency

Chapter 3

By CC333

_**Note: I'm back. Surprised?**_

In the Grand Hall…

"Ah yes. Welcome Numbuh 5. How are you this fine evening?" Numbuh Infinity greeted her, his thick accent coating his words. She'd never admit to it, but Abby always did enjoy listening to him speak, even if it wasn't about anything particularly important. As Numbuh Infinity turned to hastily address another officer that had a quick question for him, she stole a quick moment to enjoy a memory of listening to him as he gave a powerful speech at the KND Olympics, the last of his public showings before his disappearance.

"Within each kid is endless strength for endless strength originates in the heart. Any kid with a heart can be a hero."

Those had been the ending words at the conclusion of his speech. After a long, ravenous applause, the Jamaican and elusive KND operative was never once seen on camera, nor had any public reports of sightings been processed. It was like he had fallen off the edge of the earth only to come back now, during the KND's most stressful of times. When they needed someone calm to keep order and make sure procedures were carried out efficiently…

This was one of the moments she wondered that if the boy had been around, would it have been HIM instead of her to become the next Supreme Leader for the Kids Next Door.

"Numbuh 5? Numbuh 5, are you listening? We need to get moving", his voice breaking through her jumbled thoughts. She looked up to meet blacked-out sunglasses with a single eyebrow quirked above them. "Uh, yeah…let's move", was her short response, her voice portraying much more stability than she actually felt. With a single nod and kind-of grunt noise, he spun on his black heels and began advancing up towards the exit of the room. She followed instinctively and soon her footsteps were matching his beat for beat.

As they made her way down the hallway, she couldn't help but delve into another thought about the diplomat in front of her. He always dressed so nicely. Of course, it wasn't like she saw him often. No one she knew did. But when she did, it was interesting. Never one for wearing sandals or shorts, Numbah Infinity was always found wearing loafers, dress pants, a collared shirt, and a suit jacket. Now that she was up close, it was easy to conclude his articles were made of quality fabric. Everything was impressive, down to the real, expensive-looking bowties. To be honest, this wasn't the first time talk about this legend's apparel had been discussed. Many female KND members took enjoyment in discussing this particular…issue. Many loved it while others religiously argued that it resembled too much the dress of an adult. However, those operatives didn't know what Abby knew. About the Teens Next Door and how, even though respect was one of the tops virtues taught at the training camps for this particular branch, dressing older was one of the main ways to express that Numbuh Infinity was the type of guy not to mess around with.

Once again lost in her ever expanding thoughts, it was no wonder that she ended up bumping into the boy's back as he came to a stop in front of a guardrail. Quickly, she snapped back to reality as her body began to tumble backwards in reaction. It was a fast, saving hand that grabbed her by the shoulder and up righted her. His grip, however, didn't let up as accented words began to pour from his mouth.

"Numbuh 5, I expect that you have already read and signed the Promise of all Promises?"

She nodded once. "Affirmative".

"I also trust that you've studied that Manual of Operations?"

"Twice"

"The Sector Assignment and Special Sectors Guidelines?"

"Yes, Numbah Infinity", she answered, a bit of annoyance starting to enter her voice.

"All three editions"

"That's correct! Gosh dang Numbuh Infi-"

"The Big Book of Birds?", he cut her off with.

The girl was about to respond "yup" but thought over what he had just asked her. Big Book of Birds?

Apparently her confusion was apparent on her face, for it wasn't long before the grin that spread across his face evolved into a brilliant smile and a interesting chuckle that reminded her of her father trickled out of him. This was this was the first she had ever observed this type of Numbah Infinity. A bit-laid back and willing to cast a lazy smile, even crack a joke. How was it that in all this chaos, he could manage to be so calm?

"I am only messing with you, Numbuh 5"

For a second, it seemed as though he was contemplating using her real name.

She returned the laughter anyway as some of the stiff nerves that were keeping her nervous melted away. Who was she to question the sudden pleasant turn in the usually cold operative's demeanor? Enjoy it while it lasts, she told herself as he turned to face the room below them. They were standing on a balcony. No, not a just a balcony. The balcony. The balcony of the main controls room where the top commanders of the moon base and the Supreme Leader his or herself sat. Obviously, Abby had seen it before, but never before had it been so empty and quiet as it was now. For a split second, she thought about who was watching over everything if no one was at their stations, here or on earth. They were all gathering within the huge dining halls. Her mind flashed back to thoughts of a particular watch group. Not even the books spoke much about them but Hoagie had told her plenty.

…Hoagie.

She remembered how they had parted but 45 minutes ago. How they'd hugged and how the air itself felt thick and bittersweet. The feel of his grip on her and their rising heartbeats…

Realizing that dwelling on these thoughts would only further cloud the objectives laid before her, the black girl shooed them away from her mind. She fixed her eyes on the large chair sitting on the platform in the center of the room, a plethora of controls and soft glowing light panels surrounding it. Without a word, she climbed over the guard rail and landed skillfully and quietly onto the control room below, slowly moving towards the chair that she would soon claim as her own. Many cadets, at the very early ages, dream of sitting in that very chair, issuing commands and making essential choices. In fact, as they took field trips, some groups got treated with being able to sit in the chair themselves, if only for a moment. To relish the feeling of immense power just at your fingertips. Numbuh 362 had no problem with this, actually encouraging the trainers to have more groups do it. She believed so much in nurturing children's dreams.

Idly, she ran her finger absentmindedly along the chair's back.

"And to think that this and so much more will be yours after your inauguration."

The room was large and it wasn't like the Jamaican boy was overly heavy, but after she heard a small thud behind her, she could feel an amazingly powerful, almost ominous gust of wind blow past her as he completed his swift landing. She could feel his presence grow stronger as he walked up behind her, his dress shoes making quiet, formal clacks against the floor.

"Numbuh Five guesses so"

"Why do you refer to yourself in third person so often, Numbuh 5?"

He was standing behind her but she knew his mind was going off, probably getting lost within the immense scene of stars in front of them. A short silence followed. She wasn't sure how to answer his question. Instead, she opted to just not say anything at all.

That didn't deter him however.

"We can talk about it later"

After clearing his throat and straightening his posture, the boy informed her that she had time to change into the ceremonial vestments, but that she should be making her way over now if she wanted enough time for any adjustments or to review over the acceptance speech she had composed for this monumental moment in her life.

She gave him a half-hearted nod before heading off. Abigail never looked back, but something told her that Numbuh Infinity wouldn't be leaving the control room until it became absolutely necessary to do so. Although unlikely, she could've promised that she had seen a spark of something flash on his face , even though his eyes were hidden behind dark sunglasses.

_**I very much enjoy reading each and every review so I request that you leave one saying what you think. If you could also include in that review which character would you like to see more focused on next chapter. By the way, this is not an Abby/Infinity fic. I know it sounded like it…a lot. But you will see how things connect**_


	4. A Long Avoided Visit

Newfound Independency

Chapter Four

By CC333

**In an undisclosed location underneath the moon's surface…**

The dark hallway they had been traveling down wasn't too dreadfully long, but Hoagie found out that with every stride, the scent of chocolate and raspberries became even stronger. He could have sworn the scent was starting to have a physical manifestation…or perhaps that was just the sweet fumes getting to him. Puzzled, Numbuh 2 wondered silently why Numbuh 609 hadn't explained any of this to they exited the gray hallway, there was no need for words.

Detained inside a glass holding cell that also served as the new hallway's walls, a 10-foot chocolate monster pressed up against the wall. Its melted face (much like the rest of its body) slightly resembled a human, but not by much. The sounds it was making as it slammed against the thick-looking plexi glass were definitely NOT human. It sounded like the roar of a lion fused with the screech of a dying walrus (how he knew how this sounded is a completely different story, however). The terrible call echoed off the halls of the brightly lit hallway and Hoagie offhandedly began to wonder if this place's décor only had two settings: dark and gray or bright and white, as he examined the white slabs of stones beneath his feet, no longer feeling the courage to look at the beast anymore.

Surprisingly, Numbuh 609's gait never slowed or quickened, even when monster continued on to roar and chase the two operatives on its side of the glass wall, looking menacingly evil. Hoagie's curiosity got the better of him as he took a quick glance up at the creature.

"What…exactly….is it?"

Numbuh 609 only but shot a glance over his shoulder as he spoke, "Well, there are many things you could probably call…it. But we here at the E.I.S like to refer to her as Shirley". Had not his eyes been fixed forward, the short genius wouldn't have missed the doubled-over expression of the male walking behind him. After a short bout of violent coughs, Hoagie managed to choke out some sort of form of coherency.

"She?"

"Yeah, that is correct. We don't think she was ever an actual kid, but she does appear to be female"

The boy stopped himself before asking what led them to believe this; this would have to placed into the "don't ask, don't tell" vault. Instead, he thought to himself for second. It didn't take long before question (probably with a less disturbing answer) popped up.

"Why do you guys have…her….instead of the science labs, like the Deep Sea Base? Stuff like this usually get sent to them."

With this, the boy ahead of him stopped in his tracks and spun around with surprising speed. There was a odd, almost wild sparkle in his eyes that caused Numbuh 2 to involuntarily gulp. Immediately, he had wished that the words had stayed in his brain. He'd learned very well from Abigail that sparkly eyes were only the precedent of trouble.

"Numbuh 2, you do understand that I am a persistent person. Sometimes we all have to go to certain extremes and…sacrifices," (another gulp) ," to get what we want. Besides," he said lazily, "its only logical that we own her. We do have many of the best minds of the KND down here." The he spun back around and advanced forward.

With this statement, Hoagie could not disagree with. They did have some pretty talented kids down here, however the labs had the absolute best and where better equipped for the job. The round boy could only wonder what lengths he had actually strived to get…Shirley. This thought stuck to him even as they exited the white hallway and stepped into a round chamber, gray of course. As the curved hissing doors of the chamber began to close around them, the moan of the chocolate monster reverberated off the walls and the young pilot felt something akin to pity for it, though he wasn't sure why. There was a quiet whirring as he felt them descend further into the depths of the moon. They had passed several floors with various activities happening within them, varying from labs that had young scientists in white coats and goggles to experimentation lockers, one even lighting up into flames as they passed. Hoagie felt a tinge of fear shake within him; what was getting tested there, he didn't want to know.

The whirring slowed before a happy little ding announced that they had arrived to the floor of which Numbuh 609 wanted them at. Surprisingly, when the doors opened, Hoagie was greeted with a calm setting. It appeared to be some type of executive office. Plush, black leather couches, a large wooden desk, and sheets of water seemed to span the lengths of all the walls save the back one. Sitting proudly on that back wall (while practically dominating it), was the portrait of a pretty stoic looking woman. Her eyes were amazingly disconcerting although the crown of flowers that sat upon her head mellowed down her demeanor. The massive canvas towered over Hoagie and frankly put him completely out of his comfort zone. However, Numbuh 609 looked upon the same painting in a way akin to admiration, a proud smile forming on his lips as he clasped his hands behind his back and advanced towards his desk and the odd piece of artwork.

There was a short silence before Hoagie gave up an awkward cough that he hoped would bring his old friend back to the present. Without turning, Numbuh 609 answered the silent question that had all but sitting still in Hoagie's mind.

"This wonderful gal here is St. Lucy, patron saint of the eyes and blindness".Numbuh 2 didn't dare to respond as he felt that as being the appropriate thing to do. With an almost tired sigh, the short boy pulled his executive chair from under his mahogany desk, spinning it around and plunking right down into its comfy clutches, still not facing the other operative he was in the room with. Hoagie felt a shot of annoyance run through him as he fought to not check his PDA again. He knew he wasn't going to like what he saw. The reason he came here, he had finally decided, was because they needed to have a rather important conversation that probably wasn't to look to pretty in the long end, but needed to be held none the less. Hoagie quietly wondered to himself how he would begin to explain what exactly it was that they needed to speak about before the high-pitched squeak of the chief operative's chair turned slowly around to face away from the unwelcoming painting.

"So, sir, what was the real reason you stopped by?" the boy began himself, not wanted to draw out length of silence that would further dam up the words and emotions than needed to be conversed. For once, Hoagie didn't have a quick or snappy response to reply with and instead pretended to be more fixed on admiring the humongous piece of art before him, however the unanswered short operative appeared ill-amused, something Hoagie confirmed himself with a quick downward glance at his face.

The quiet sound of short fingernails clicking against wood tinkled like background music within the room. After a throat was cleared (Hoagie wasn't sure who's ), the boy's oddly deep voice rang through again, "Sit down, Hoagie". The pilot didn't even dwell on the fact that 609 was being completely hypocritical now, seeing as he too was now choosing to refer to him with his real name as well.

"Sure…, Charlie".

The round boy couldn't even imagine wiping the grin off his face as he watched the indignant reaction he'd gotten out of the other boy. With that same smug smile, Hoagie stepped over and steadily lowered himself into the cold leather recliners facing his desk, quickly finding out that as inviting the furniture seemed, he had never felt so out of place before. Numbuh 2 never was really a office person in the first place and this whole experience was proving to be rather unnerving.

After finding a seemingly nice position himself, Charlie went on ahead, diving into the matters whilst resting his intriguingly shiny shoes atop the mahogany desk. "I'm sure that you are growing tired of being so…evasive. My best guess is that you're here because we've finally convinced you of how naïve you've been for the last few years, denying over and over again."

Hoagie wrinkled his nose at this last part but didn't interrupt otherwise.

"What's got me so baffled is why now." Now the other boy was paying sharp attention.

"I mean you catch us at the busiest day we've had in years, unannounced, popping up practically out of thin air. Tell me, what's so important that you needed to tell me right now?"

Hoagie was a quiet for a bit longer, forming his sentences carefully in his mind. If he was going to do this, he was going to do it right so it reaped the desired results, however when words actually began tumbling out of his mouth, they sounded a lot more simpler than originally mapped.

"I need out. I mean, well, things are taking some pretty drastic changes over at Sector V and where things are heading, this," the boy indicated with a sweeping hand gesture to the whole underground surveillance base, "will only hinder me further in my…new advances as it relates to assignment paths"

That last phrase tasted horribly bitter in his mouth but it was the exact wording of the commands that had been issued little of a week ago.

"Ahh, so it's true. After losing two of its members, Sector V is finally breaking down", was Charlie's half-amused response, the boy lazily examining his fingernails while Hoagie silently fumed over what had just been said.

"Yeah, well, that's a whole nother story for a different time, don't cha' think? Perhaps a _little _later, kid?"

Numbuh 609 gaped at the insinuation while another smug smile erupted upon the other operative's face. Score two for the Hoagster, he thought as he leaned back and settled into a semi-lax state. At least he hadn't made a direct remark about his stature. Things like that were the kind that made Charlie Hoffenstaife get loose. As far as he knew, Hoagie was treading on thin ice.

It wasn't long before the smaller boy had recomposed and pressed on.

"Quite. Hmm, there's more to it though, isn't there. Fears of being on your own, chap? Huh, is that it? Or perhaps of losing your teammates and having to start all over. Who isn't then? A girl, huh? The Asian girl? She's pretty enough. Is it her? Or perhaps the black girl?"

The flurry of words that were somersaulting out of Charlie's mouth forced the eyes behind Numbuh 2's yellow aviator goggles to grow wider and wider. It was the last part that made him feel as if someone had just kicked him in the stomach, though.

Charlie took no notice, he was on a roll.

"Ah, yes. I wouldn't be surprised. A wonderful operative our new Supreme Leader is, that I couldn't argue with if I wanted to. She's not half bad looking either," the genius behind the desk mused, as if almost to himself. Though they were concealed by his sides, the other boy's fist clenched so hard that they began to pale to a deathly color. With Abigail now fully planted on his mind again for some reason, he couldn't help checking his PDA with a quick glance. There wasn't much time before he needed to be back to the surface if he didn't want to be late.

"Hmm, indeed", was all he could muster out without losing his decency. The last thing he needed was for this guy to interpret his reactions and then use those same convictions against him.

Charlie looked Hoagie over with a raised eyebrow. Other than the fact that his jaw had clenched when he brought up Numbuh 5, there wasn't much to harvest. No matter, if he really wanted to know, it couldn't be too hard to find. He did, after all, have eyes and ears _everywhere._

Reeling back to the initial point, the short boy sighed. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he'd have to sooner or later. The actual chances of getting Hoagie to the E.I.S had been higher than they had been in years, now with his old team dispersing and all, but the boy still wasn't budging. They couldn't just as well keep bothering him until the day he himself would be decommissioned and he _did_ have enough moxy to roll down there himself and state his own terms. With a heavy sigh, Charlie realized that this really the end. In both their advantages toward him as the E.I.S and for his whole sector, one of the most highly respected groups of operatives in KND History.

Numbuh 2 nervously tugged at his collar, feeling the awkward silence seep slowly into his bones.

"Alright.""What?"

"You win, sir. I think it's about time we let you be free, no?"

An eyebrow was raised on the pilot's part.

"You mean it?"

"But don't think that means you won't be hearing from us."

That statement gave the round boy mixed feelings. As fascinating at the E.I.S branch was, everyone associated with them was (at least mildly) insane. What exactly did he mean by "hearing from us"?

With a split-second of thinking, he decisively noted that the matter would probably be best left unvoiced for the time being. Another selection for the vault. Time was limited and Hoagie was agog to get back to the up and reaching over the table with an extended hand, Numbuh 609 indicated the closing of the discussion. Hoagie accepted his hand and together they recited an old handshake they'd made a long while ago. When things weren't so complicated.

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Abby could hear the roaring crowd outside, the sound practically rumbling the walls around her. In less than 15 minutes, she would be expected to walk out there onto that central platform and deliver her first speech. In front of millions. And millions. Of kids.

To be truthful, Abby hadn't really anticipated _that _figure to show up, but then again an inauguration usually turns out as big news. Of course, contrary to popular belief among much of the KND, not absolutely ever operative of the KND (save Sector A) was here. Cataclysmic events would surely have ensured if such was true. Sure, she knew about the selection of highly skilled sectors that were requested to stay down below and about the elusive Eyes in the Sky operatives on duty.

"Okay, maybe not much on them….", were her only thoughts on the matter. She knew they existed, where they were, and (a little about) what they did and during these exciting and overwhelming times, that was enough. She knew Hoagie had grumbled about them every now and then but was usually tight-lipped about the details.

Hmm, Hoagie.

It was peculiar how, out of her teammates, he managed to be last that she saw before being whisked away for her preparations. Her best friend had been acting rather distant for the last few days and she was glad that they had finally found the time to talk on the deck earlier. Her first reaction to his eluding was to be angry. There were too many things happening at once and she needed someone to be by her side. It was a good thing that there was another female around to accompany her when all she felt like doing was ripping her own hair out. It was a very good thing that that person was Kuki, someone who had a good sense of balance with her negative emotions. Unintentionally, Abby had even taken up one the other girl's old, abandoned habits of chewing bubble gum to calm her nerves. By the time the grand stadium had been filled to the brim. Abigail had found that her jaw had developed a slow, throbbing ache from the gigantic wad of gun she had been driving down on God-only-knows how long.

The back room she had been instructed stay in until further notice was cool and brightly lit. The girl sat crossed-legged on the green, plaid couch pushed against the wall, her signature red hat pulled down low to shade the top half of her face, her favorite way to wear it. It seemed like the minutes on her PDA were acting more like hours and it wasn't long before she had grown tired of reading and re-reading the speech cards she had prepared with Kuki lending some help throughout the process (although most of her recommendations ended up sounding like fluffy non-sense). Now each stroke of blue ink on those lined cards felt like they were imprinted in her mind, rendering her with nothing else to do by herself in the solitary confinement that looked to double as break room for Moon Base operatives, judging by the coffee table, couch, lounge chairs, and fridge stocked with junk food. Under most circumstances, Abby would have gladly helped herself to such goodies, but right then her stomach was to hyperactive to actually hold any sustenance. She realized she hadn't really eaten anything that whole day except for an apple that she had nabbed from the busy kitchens.

The African-American girl had been on the new Moon Base for more than 48 hours now, and she found herself quickly adapting to the difference in gravities from room to room. Although the new central unit was much larger and more technologically advanced than the older one that was purposefully crashed to save kid-kind, it still was a work in progress. Sure it looked like a metropolitan utopia, with its vacuum-powered shuttles and high buildings all conformed together with hallways and paths. It was a wonder how it could still be considered a tree house structure, all with its size and what not, but true to every other base, it was. Space technology was am ever-expanding research field at the Deep Sea Base and there were still certain kinks in trying to make a better long term surviving base of that scale in a completely different atmosphere; one of those kinks just happened to be regulating the pressure of gravity through the enormous base. It was a very unsettling, her own being having to adjust so quickly. That had actually been one of the first things Hoagie had warned her about prior to their first trip to the new and improved Moonbase.

"Don't be surprise if you feel really heavy upon arrival and then super light after decompressing is done. It's all normal."

"Don't worry about it. Numbuh 5's sure something that large will just take some getting used to"At that, Hoagie's eyes widened and his face instantly reddened. Abigail sent a threatening glare his way. It was apparent that he putting serious efforts into holding in some stupid pun or comment.

Seconds went by went by before his bursting cheeks just went ahead and released it anyway, despite the death glare he was well aware he was receiving.

"That's what she said!" He followed that up with fit of uncontrollable chucking. He earned himself a Level Two glare and a clear eye roll from the girl who threw her hands up in exasperation.

Right then , she wanted him to be with her. They could've talked about the ice cream that was served or her what her plans for the KND were (though they had spoken about this several times before, both parties enjoying listening to the other speak so animatedly about their dreams), or even about some complicated techno stuff he seemed to love to blabber about, where she would just nod and give an approving nod here and there. Instead, she was stuck in the room by herself.

Numbuh Infinity had gone off somewhere soon after their meeting. Their conversation still laid frayed on the edges, unanswered questions sticking out here and there, like the one about her speech tendency of referring to herself in third person. Truly, it wasn't a big deal. As she matured, she used it alternately between the correct phrases of "I" and "me" instead of her old habits, but she still found some comfort in it. It had originally just started out with a little teasing between her and her father when she was a young age and it had stuck with her every since. The whole thing just kind of connected her to him. At certain times, she felt like she was doing wrong against him, completely fazing him into believed a huge lie. But that was the life of a KND operative and not much could be done about it.

Numbuh 2 already knew about this. About why she chose to speak that way. He didn't judge or comment on it. Just nodded his head in acknowledgement and acceptance and she eternally thanked him for that.

Man, she wished he was there. Or at least another person's face, preferably a familiar one. Kuki? Wally? Anyone…

Her pleading was half-answered with quiet swooshing of the green door as it swung open and the head of someone Abby didn't necessarily knew popped it. The girl sported a messy bun with a couple of pens and pencils growing out of it. The eyes behind her glasses looked tireless as she gestured that it was time.

Upon approaching the exit after climbing off the couch, Numbuh 5 heard the other girl make a "tsk" sound with her mouth before shaking her head and shoving her thumb to point to the wastebasket a few meters away. She was confused at what that meant until she caught on. The gum was removed and tossed into the trash. The blonde busy-looking girl gave her a small, satisfactory smile before indicating that Abigail was to follow her. While leaving the room, she noted that the girl also sported a comm unit around her ear and a brown clipboard in her other hand.

Together, the two girls advanced down short hallway (that Numbuh 5 could have sworn was somehow growing longer by the second beneath her own feet). The girls' striding doesn't break as they headed closer to a set of double doors, the sound getting louder, something she couldn't have even imagined. As one, they busted through the doors, but the girl veered left immediately, descending the side stair step, leaving Abby by herself to face the crowd on top of the huge stage.

For a second, she felt her speech slip from her mental grasp as she inwardly gaped at the sheer number of kids in the stands, each one cheering their heads off in response to her long-awaited appearance. A warm feeling sunk into her feeling, but it wasn't enough to sate the stupid butterflies that insisted on fluttering about within her stomach. Still, she managed to stride proudly to the podium at the front center edge of the platform. The second thing she noted was the number of microphones at the stand and various cameras pointing at her face. It was then that realized how grateful she should have been that the traditional inauguration garment was composed only of a single white and gold embroidered sash that she was required to wear across her chest.

It seemed like hours before the crowd had calmed themselves down enough for her to give her opening speech and thus, initiate the beginning of the official ceremony. The first lines flashed in her mind instantly and she drew a deep breath to begin reciting.

That's when everything plunged into pitch black darkness.

_**Did you enjoy that chapter? I do hope so. Please note that this is all taking place on the New Moonbase, seeing as the timeline would officially say that the older one was sacrificed to be used as a major weapon of sorts.**_

_**Please review.**_


	5. You're Free

Newfound Independency

Chapter Four

By CC333

**In an undisclosed location underneath the moon's surface…**

The dark hallway they had been traveling down wasn't too dreadfully long, but Hoagie found out that with every stride, the scent of chocolate and raspberries became even stronger. He could have sworn the scent was starting to have a physical manifestation…or perhaps that was just the sweet fumes getting to him. Puzzled, Numbuh 2 wondered silently why Numbuh 609 hadn't explained any of this to they exited the gray hallway, there was no need for words.

Detained inside a glass holding cell that also served as the new hallway's walls, a 10-foot chocolate monster pressed up against the wall. Its melted face (much like the rest of its body) slightly resembled a human, but not by much. The sounds it was making as it slammed against the thick-looking plexi glass were definitely NOT human. It sounded like the roar of a lion fused with the screech of a dying walrus (how he knew how this sounded is a completely different story, however). The terrible call echoed off the halls of the brightly lit hallway and Hoagie offhandedly began to wonder if this place's décor only had two settings: dark and gray or bright and white, as he examined the white slabs of stones beneath his feet, no longer feeling the courage to look at the beast anymore.

Surprisingly, Numbuh 609's gait never slowed or quickened, even when monster continued on to roar and chase the two operatives on its side of the glass wall, looking menacingly evil. Hoagie's curiosity got the better of him as he took a quick glance up at the creature.

"What…exactly….is it?"

Numbuh 609 only but shot a glance over his shoulder as he spoke, "Well, there are many things you could probably call…it. But we here at the E.I.S like to refer to her as Shirley". Had not his eyes been fixed forward, the short genius wouldn't have missed the doubled-over expression of the male walking behind him. After a short bout of violent coughs, Hoagie managed to choke out some sort of form of coherency.

"She?"

"Yeah, that is correct. We don't think she was ever an actual kid, but she does appear to be female"

The boy stopped himself before asking what led them to believe this; this would have to placed into the "don't ask, don't tell" vault. Instead, he thought to himself for second. It didn't take long before question (probably with a less disturbing answer) popped up.

"Why do you guys have…her….instead of the science labs, like the Deep Sea Base? Stuff like this usually get sent to them."

With this, the boy ahead of him stopped in his tracks and spun around with surprising speed. There was a odd, almost wild sparkle in his eyes that caused Numbuh 2 to involuntarily gulp. Immediately, he had wished that the words had stayed in his brain. He'd learned very well from Abigail that sparkly eyes were only the precedent of trouble.

"Numbuh 2, you do understand that I am a persistent person. Sometimes we all have to go to certain extremes and…sacrifices," (another gulp) ," to get what we want. Besides," he said lazily, "its only logical that we own her. We do have many of the best minds of the KND down here." The he spun back around and advanced forward.

With this statement, Hoagie could not disagree with. They did have some pretty talented kids down here, however the labs had the absolute best and where better equipped for the job. The round boy could only wonder what lengths he had actually strived to get…Shirley. This thought stuck to him even as they exited the white hallway and stepped into a round chamber, gray of course. As the curved hissing doors of the chamber began to close around them, the moan of the chocolate monster reverberated off the walls and the young pilot felt something akin to pity for it, though he wasn't sure why. There was a quiet whirring as he felt them descend further into the depths of the moon. They had passed several floors with various activities happening within them, varying from labs that had young scientists in white coats and goggles to experimentation lockers, one even lighting up into flames as they passed. Hoagie felt a tinge of fear shake within him; what was getting tested there, he didn't want to know.

The whirring slowed before a happy little ding announced that they had arrived to the floor of which Numbuh 609 wanted them at. Surprisingly, when the doors opened, Hoagie was greeted with a calm setting. It appeared to be some type of executive office. Plush, black leather couches, a large wooden desk, and sheets of water seemed to span the lengths of all the walls save the back one. Sitting proudly on that back wall (while practically dominating it), was the portrait of a pretty stoic looking woman. Her eyes were amazingly disconcerting although the crown of flowers that sat upon her head mellowed down her demeanor. The massive canvas towered over Hoagie and frankly put him completely out of his comfort zone. However, Numbuh 609 looked upon the same painting in a way akin to admiration, a proud smile forming on his lips as he clasped his hands behind his back and advanced towards his desk and the odd piece of artwork.

There was a short silence before Hoagie gave up an awkward cough that he hoped would bring his old friend back to the present. Without turning, Numbuh 609 answered the silent question that had all but sitting still in Hoagie's mind.

"This wonderful gal here is St. Lucy, patron saint of the eyes and blindness".Numbuh 2 didn't dare to respond as he felt that as being the appropriate thing to do. With an almost tired sigh, the short boy pulled his executive chair from under his mahogany desk, spinning it around and plunking right down into its comfy clutches, still not facing the other operative he was in the room with. Hoagie felt a shot of annoyance run through him as he fought to not check his PDA again. He knew he wasn't going to like what he saw. The reason he came here, he had finally decided, was because they needed to have a rather important conversation that probably wasn't to look to pretty in the long end, but needed to be held none the less. Hoagie quietly wondered to himself how he would begin to explain what exactly it was that they needed to speak about before the high-pitched squeak of the chief operative's chair turned slowly around to face away from the unwelcoming painting.

"So, sir, what was the real reason you stopped by?" the boy began himself, not wanted to draw out length of silence that would further dam up the words and emotions than needed to be conversed. For once, Hoagie didn't have a quick or snappy response to reply with and instead pretended to be more fixed on admiring the humongous piece of art before him, however the unanswered short operative appeared ill-amused, something Hoagie confirmed himself with a quick downward glance at his face.

The quiet sound of short fingernails clicking against wood tinkled like background music within the room. After a throat was cleared (Hoagie wasn't sure who's ), the boy's oddly deep voice rang through again, "Sit down, Hoagie". The pilot didn't even dwell on the fact that 609 was being completely hypocritical now, seeing as he too was now choosing to refer to him with his real name as well.

"Sure…, Charlie".

The round boy couldn't even imagine wiping the grin off his face as he watched the indignant reaction he'd gotten out of the other boy. With that same smug smile, Hoagie stepped over and steadily lowered himself into the cold leather recliners facing his desk, quickly finding out that as inviting the furniture seemed, he had never felt so out of place before. Numbuh 2 never was really a office person in the first place and this whole experience was proving to be rather unnerving.

After finding a seemingly nice position himself, Charlie went on ahead, diving into the matters whilst resting his intriguingly shiny shoes atop the mahogany desk. "I'm sure that you are growing tired of being so…evasive. My best guess is that you're here because we've finally convinced you of how naïve you've been for the last few years, denying over and over again."

Hoagie wrinkled his nose at this last part but didn't interrupt otherwise.

"What's got me so baffled is why now." Now the other boy was paying sharp attention.

"I mean you catch us at the busiest day we've had in years, unannounced, popping up practically out of thin air. Tell me, what's so important that you needed to tell me right now?"

Hoagie was a quiet for a bit longer, forming his sentences carefully in his mind. If he was going to do this, he was going to do it right so it reaped the desired results, however when words actually began tumbling out of his mouth, they sounded a lot more simpler than originally mapped.

"I need out. I mean, well, things are taking some pretty drastic changes over at Sector V and where things are heading, this," the boy indicated with a sweeping hand gesture to the whole underground surveillance base, "will only hinder me further in my…new advances as it relates to assignment paths"

That last phrase tasted horribly bitter in his mouth but it was the exact wording of the commands that had been issued little of a week ago.

"Ahh, so it's true. After losing two of its members, Sector V is finally breaking down", was Charlie's half-amused response, the boy lazily examining his fingernails while Hoagie silently fumed over what had just been said.

"Yeah, well, that's a whole nother story for a different time, don't cha' think? Perhaps a _little _later, kid?"

Numbuh 609 gaped at the insinuation while another smug smile erupted upon the other operative's face. Score two for the Hoagster, he thought as he leaned back and settled into a semi-lax state. At least he hadn't made a direct remark about his stature. Things like that were the kind that made Charlie Hoffenstaife get loose. As far as he knew, Hoagie was treading on thin ice.

It wasn't long before the smaller boy had recomposed and pressed on.

"Quite. Hmm, there's more to it though, isn't there. Fears of being on your own, chap? Huh, is that it? Or perhaps of losing your teammates and having to start all over. Who isn't then? A girl, huh? The Asian girl? She's pretty enough. Is it her? Or perhaps the black girl?"

The flurry of words that were somersaulting out of Charlie's mouth forced the eyes behind Numbuh 2's yellow aviator goggles to grow wider and wider. It was the last part that made him feel as if someone had just kicked him in the stomach, though.

Charlie took no notice, he was on a roll.

"Ah, yes. I wouldn't be surprised. A wonderful operative our new Supreme Leader is, that I couldn't argue with if I wanted to. She's not half bad looking either," the genius behind the desk mused, as if almost to himself. Though they were concealed by his sides, the other boy's fist clenched so hard that they began to pale to a deathly color. With Abigail now fully planted on his mind again for some reason, he couldn't help checking his PDA with a quick glance. There wasn't much time before he needed to be back to the surface if he didn't want to be late.

"Hmm, indeed", was all he could muster out without losing his decency. The last thing he needed was for this guy to interpret his reactions and then use those same convictions against him.

Charlie looked Hoagie over with a raised eyebrow. Other than the fact that his jaw had clenched when he brought up Numbuh 5, there wasn't much to harvest. No matter, if he really wanted to know, it couldn't be too hard to find. He did, after all, have eyes and ears _everywhere._

Reeling back to the initial point, the short boy sighed. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he'd have to sooner or later. The actual chances of getting Hoagie to the E.I.S had been higher than they had been in years, now with his old team dispersing and all, but the boy still wasn't budging. They couldn't just as well keep bothering him until the day he himself would be decommissioned and he _did_ have enough moxy to roll down there himself and state his own terms. With a heavy sigh, Charlie realized that this really the end. In both their advantages toward him as the E.I.S and for his whole sector, one of the most highly respected groups of operatives in KND History.

Numbuh 2 nervously tugged at his collar, feeling the awkward silence seep slowly into his bones.

"Alright.""What?"

"You win, sir. I think it's about time we let you be free, no?"

An eyebrow was raised on the pilot's part.

"You mean it?"

"But don't think that means you won't be hearing from us."

That statement gave the round boy mixed feelings. As fascinating at the E.I.S branch was, everyone associated with them was (at least mildly) insane. What exactly did he mean by "hearing from us"?

With a split-second of thinking, he decisively noted that the matter would probably be best left unvoiced for the time being. Another selection for the vault. Time was limited and Hoagie was agog to get back to the up and reaching over the table with an extended hand, Numbuh 609 indicated the closing of the discussion. Hoagie accepted his hand and together they recited an old handshake they'd made a long while ago. When things weren't so complicated.

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Abby could hear the roaring crowd outside, the sound practically rumbling the walls around her. In less than 15 minutes, she would be expected to walk out there onto that central platform and deliver her first speech. In front of millions. And millions. Of kids.

To be truthful, Abby hadn't really anticipated _that _figure to show up, but then again an inauguration usually turns out as big news. Of course, contrary to popular belief among much of the KND, not absolutely ever operative of the KND (save Sector A) was here. Cataclysmic events would surely have ensured if such was true. Sure, she knew about the selection of highly skilled sectors that were requested to stay down below and about the elusive Eyes in the Sky operatives on duty.

"Okay, maybe not much on them….", were her only thoughts on the matter. She knew they existed, where they were, and (a little about) what they did and during these exciting and overwhelming times, that was enough. She knew Hoagie had grumbled about them every now and then but was usually tight-lipped about the details.

Hmm, Hoagie.

It was peculiar how, out of her teammates, he managed to be last that she saw before being whisked away for her preparations. Her best friend had been acting rather distant for the last few days and she was glad that they had finally found the time to talk on the deck earlier. Her first reaction to his eluding was to be angry. There were too many things happening at once and she needed someone to be by her side. It was a good thing that there was another female around to accompany her when all she felt like doing was ripping her own hair out. It was a very good thing that that person was Kuki, someone who had a good sense of balance with her negative emotions. Unintentionally, Abby had even taken up one the other girl's old, abandoned habits of chewing bubble gum to calm her nerves. By the time the grand stadium had been filled to the brim. Abigail had found that her jaw had developed a slow, throbbing ache from the gigantic wad of gun she had been driving down on God-only-knows how long.

The back room she had been instructed stay in until further notice was cool and brightly lit. The girl sat crossed-legged on the green, plaid couch pushed against the wall, her signature red hat pulled down low to shade the top half of her face, her favorite way to wear it. It seemed like the minutes on her PDA were acting more like hours and it wasn't long before she had grown tired of reading and re-reading the speech cards she had prepared with Kuki lending some help throughout the process (although most of her recommendations ended up sounding like fluffy non-sense). Now each stroke of blue ink on those lined cards felt like they were imprinted in her mind, rendering her with nothing else to do by herself in the solitary confinement that looked to double as break room for Moon Base operatives, judging by the coffee table, couch, lounge chairs, and fridge stocked with junk food. Under most circumstances, Abby would have gladly helped herself to such goodies, but right then her stomach was to hyperactive to actually hold any sustenance. She realized she hadn't really eaten anything that whole day except for an apple that she had nabbed from the busy kitchens.

The African-American girl had been on the new Moon Base for more than 48 hours now, and she found herself quickly adapting to the difference in gravities from room to room. Although the new central unit was much larger and more technologically advanced than the older one that was purposefully crashed to save kid-kind, it still was a work in progress. Sure it looked like a metropolitan utopia, with its vacuum-powered shuttles and high buildings all conformed together with hallways and paths. It was a wonder how it could still be considered a tree house structure, all with its size and what not, but true to every other base, it was. Space technology was am ever-expanding research field at the Deep Sea Base and there were still certain kinks in trying to make a better long term surviving base of that scale in a completely different atmosphere; one of those kinks just happened to be regulating the pressure of gravity through the enormous base. It was a very unsettling, her own being having to adjust so quickly. That had actually been one of the first things Hoagie had warned her about prior to their first trip to the new and improved Moonbase.

"Don't be surprise if you feel really heavy upon arrival and then super light after decompressing is done. It's all normal."

"Don't worry about it. Numbuh 5's sure something that large will just take some getting used to"At that, Hoagie's eyes widened and his face instantly reddened. Abigail sent a threatening glare his way. It was apparent that he putting serious efforts into holding in some stupid pun or comment.

Seconds went by went by before his bursting cheeks just went ahead and released it anyway, despite the death glare he was well aware he was receiving.

"That's what she said!" He followed that up with fit of uncontrollable chucking. He earned himself a Level Two glare and a clear eye roll from the girl who threw her hands up in exasperation.

Right then , she wanted him to be with her. They could've talked about the ice cream that was served or her what her plans for the KND were (though they had spoken about this several times before, both parties enjoying listening to the other speak so animatedly about their dreams), or even about some complicated techno stuff he seemed to love to blabber about, where she would just nod and give an approving nod here and there. Instead, she was stuck in the room by herself.

Numbuh Infinity had gone off somewhere soon after their meeting. Their conversation still laid frayed on the edges, unanswered questions sticking out here and there, like the one about her speech tendency of referring to herself in third person. Truly, it wasn't a big deal. As she matured, she used it alternately between the correct phrases of "I" and "me" instead of her old habits, but she still found some comfort in it. It had originally just started out with a little teasing between her and her father when she was a young age and it had stuck with her every since. The whole thing just kind of connected her to him. At certain times, she felt like she was doing wrong against him, completely fazing him into believed a huge lie. But that was the life of a KND operative and not much could be done about it.

Numbuh 2 already knew about this. About why she chose to speak that way. He didn't judge or comment on it. Just nodded his head in acknowledgement and acceptance and she eternally thanked him for that.

Man, she wished he was there. Or at least another person's face, preferably a familiar one. Kuki? Wally? Anyone…

Her pleading was half-answered with quiet swooshing of the green door as it swung open and the head of someone Abby didn't necessarily knew popped it. The girl sported a messy bun with a couple of pens and pencils growing out of it. The eyes behind her glasses looked tireless as she gestured that it was time.

Upon approaching the exit after climbing off the couch, Numbuh 5 heard the other girl make a "tsk" sound with her mouth before shaking her head and shoving her thumb to point to the wastebasket a few meters away. She was confused at what that meant until she caught on. The gum was removed and tossed into the trash. The blonde busy-looking girl gave her a small, satisfactory smile before indicating that Abigail was to follow her. While leaving the room, she noted that the girl also sported a comm unit around her ear and a brown clipboard in her other hand.

Together, the two girls advanced down short hallway (that Numbuh 5 could have sworn was somehow growing longer by the second beneath her own feet). The girls' striding doesn't break as they headed closer to a set of double doors, the sound getting louder, something she couldn't have even imagined. As one, they busted through the doors, but the girl veered left immediately, descending the side stair step, leaving Abby by herself to face the crowd on top of the huge stage.

For a second, she felt her speech slip from her mental grasp as she inwardly gaped at the sheer number of kids in the stands, each one cheering their heads off in response to her long-awaited appearance. A warm feeling sunk into her feeling, but it wasn't enough to sate the stupid butterflies that insisted on fluttering about within her stomach. Still, she managed to stride proudly to the podium at the front center edge of the platform. The second thing she noted was the number of microphones at the stand and various cameras pointing at her face. It was then that realized how grateful she should have been that the traditional inauguration garment was composed only of a single white and gold embroidered sash that she was required to wear across her chest.

It seemed like hours before the crowd had calmed themselves down enough for her to give her opening speech and thus, initiate the beginning of the official ceremony. The first lines flashed in her mind instantly and she drew a deep breath to begin reciting.

That's when everything plunged into pitch black darkness.

_**Did you enjoy that chapter? I do hope so. Please note that this is all taking place on the New Moonbase, seeing as the timeline would officially say that the older one was sacrificed to be used as a major weapon of sorts.**_

_**Please review.**_


	6. Darkness

_**Newfound Independency**_

_**Chapter Five**_

_**By: CC333**_

_**I do not own Codename: Kids Next Door**_

**At the entrance of Port 13 Section 6 of the Grand Hall: Moon Base…**

Hoagie had just entered through Port 13 Section 6 when darkness consumed the enormous stadium, it's uncanny timing knocking him back a step. The endless-looking set of steps that once stood before him almost disappeared in the dark. His ears picked up a collection of screams from kids who suffered from achluophobia…or were just plain scared.

With a carefully KND-trained eye, Numbuh Two attempted to surveyed the dark arena as a whole, instantly spotting members of Sector N and their specialized glow-in the-dark suits that dotted the entire Section 12 spring into action first, glowing green figures rushing the stage. Those kids had impressive background. Tested to have the best night vision in the whole Kids Next Door and known for many of the same training as spy operatives, these kids were so nocturnal some rumored that their base didn't even require lighting and that they preferred living in the dark. Their advantage made them optimal for massive night missions, although Hoagie could have promised that he had heard through the grapevine about something pertaining this particular sector and an major candy exchange market underground near Pakistan. The boy was generally surprised that they were able to still make the massive event being held that night.

After the initial shock wore off, Numbuh Two felt himself jogging, no, sprinting back out of Port 13 and down one of the large, tubular halls that surrounded the stadium. He had to squint just to see where he was running as the glow off the moon wasn't helpful, despite the fact that that particular section was made out of reinforced glass to allow a nice view. The emergency lights had yet to cut on. That's what worried Hoagie the most. They should have turned on 10 seconds ago and yet, still nothing. If there was something going wrong down in the base's engineering, there was the chance that the oxygen levels would be able to sustain. The emergency oxygen chambers were usually kept at optimum capacity, but with the quantity of people the base was supporting now, they would only be able to run for a certain amount of time.

A interesting thought had fought through his emergency mind filters just then. How exactly did he know all of this? Like where Engineering was for example? A short burst from his memory banks reminded him of when he had received the blueprints for the new and improved moon base, months back. While helping with the project as much as his schedule would allow for, Numbuh Two never took up the opportunity to be on site, even though his input was highly coveted and was selected to work along other prestigious scientific operatives. His loyalty was to his sector…however sometimes he wished he had at least visited. Maybe then, at least some of the many kinks the space headquarters had wouldn't have existed.

Finally reaching the end of the hall where the V.A.C.S.L.I.D.E. station housed the ready-to-go pods, the boy slowed to catch his breath. Pushing his goggles into his hair while simultaneously sending his ginger-brown locks back so that he might be able to see, Numbuh Two keyed in a short destination code and felt his eyes widened as a prompt message materialized onto the screen: the authorization code for Engineering Deck 1.

Hoagie quietly cursed into the air while wracking his brain. On the blueprints sent to him, there had been various codes for a selection of different areas and he could have promised that he had seen this one. With shaky and unsure fingers, he keyed in the first seven-digit number that came to his mind. The screen responded immediately with a output response informing him that his guess was incorrect. A heavy sigh escaped his lips as he tried hard to remember.

"C'mon, c'mon, baby. Kick in for Daddy," the boy soothed to the device as he carefully tried another number, only to be greeted with the same blinking "incorrect input" message flashing red and blue onto the walls of the dark hallway.

"Are you kidding me?"

Another deep breath.

There was something interesting that Hoagie had noted something about the code that he found almost humorous.

Wait.

That's right.

The code…it matched Abby's phone number.

With a sort of half chuckle, half snort, he typed in the code onto the keypad and couldn't fight off the crazy grin that spread across his face as the system dinged in agreement and the hiss of the pneumatic lock of a transport pod opening could be heard. Hoagie wasted no time, climbing into the pod while simultaneously pulling his goggles back over his eyes. As soon as he was seated within the long, sleek black pod, his arm reached out to close the overhead latch. Three short beeps represented the countdown before the pod shot off, jolting forward at high speeds and instantly sinking Hoagie into pitch-black darkness. Traveling in "Big Base" V.A.C.S.L.I.D.E systems never had really settled with Numbuh Two. Unlike the one's he was familiar with, these went at impossible speeds and dipped any which way, including-

Hoagie's yell reverberated off the metal and glass vacuum tubes as the pod plunged into a what felt like a complete free fall.

After about 30 seconds of dropping and screaming for his mother, he finally was able to calm himself as the pod seemed to take a curve and felt that it was once again heading straight forward. Through all his distressing, he hadn't even noticed that his communicator had been ringing. It vibrated softly at his belt before he snatched it up and answered."Heeellllooo, this is Numbuh 2"

"Numbuh 2?", a familiar, girly voice, tinged with worry, repeated back to him, "Are you okay? Where are you?"

Hoagie, now focusing hard on the device, picked up the sounds of shouted orders and hushed panic conversation. Numbuh 3 must have still been in the arena. Before he could respond another recognizable voice, this one farther away, piped up.

"Yeah, we've been wonderin' where you headed off to". While Numbuh 4 spoke in a nonchalant tone, Hoagie still felt a tad bit touched.

"I'm fine, guys. Just heading down below to see if I can help out with anything."

Rather than a relieved response and a short amount of berating that Hoagie had expected, he was met with the high-pitched scream of a girl. It wasn't Kuki's, but it still was gut-wrenching. The only thing that calmed his suspicions of what just happened was Wally's yell of, "Someone get Sonya a bloody flashlight; she's making me deaf with all that screaming!"

The comm went dead, the audio buzzing out into white noise before completely blanking into silence.

"What the-", Hoagie muttered himself, before wiggling to slap the communicator against the palm of his hand in an attempt to revive it. The small device flashed a short "low battery" message and then a cheery "Goodbye!" one before becoming dark and blank again, once more keeping the boy in complete darkness.

_**Please Review**_


	7. A Step into the Fire

Hoagie's vision shifted from black to bloodstained. As the hissing locks of the vacuum pod unlatched and the latch door slowly rose open, he was bathed with red light. The whole engineering deck seemed to be swimming in red emergency lighting. An intense heat forcefully hit his face as he was released from the VAC pod. Any and all sounds were drowned out by the blaring sirens.

_Chaos and discord throughout the whole entire moon base_, the boy thought while climbing out of the pod and stepping onto the metal catwalk of Engineering's top deck. He readjusted the yellow aviator googles on his face while surveying the surrounding area. All the kids he had seen so far donned identical orange hard hats and clear safety goggles. They rushed around frantically, some attempting to shout orders over the ear-splitting sirens. Many clutched long tubes of paper which Hoagie automatically assumed were blue prints of the base. What was going on?

There was one particular girl who was barking out commands louder than anyone else down in the metallic belly of the base. She had extremely short, black hair that made it almost difficult to tell her gender. It was the feminine facial structure and eyelashes that gave her away, however. It was impossible to tell what her KND number was seeing as she was wearing some sort of white, heavy looking, flame-retardant suit. It was then that the heat beating against him seemed to intensify tenfold. "Why was it so freaking hot down here?", Hoagie wondered while wiping a few beads of sweat off his forehead. Sure, it's where most of the heat is generated, but the temperatures that were raging strong were ridiculously high and he couldn't quite place his finger on what was wrong.

That is, until he saw that two of the main furnaces were literally on fire.

There was a crowd of operators, trying desperately to yank the emergency cool-down lever in order to activate it. However, even with three kids and a crowbar, the efforts seemed futile.

Hoagie shifted his attention back to who he had concluded was the new head engineer of the redesigned moon base. She, like all the other kids trying to fix the situation at hand, was sweating hard and never missed a beat on yelling out one line of commands after another.

Up on the top deck catwalk, Hoagie could see the majority of the blazing furnace room beneath him and the other mechanical rooms beyond. He could spot many other issues going wrong all over the place: a control panel alighting with bright white sparks as it went on the fritz, one of the humongous oxygen chambers having been decimated, the floors of some of the farthest away rooms looking slick with some type of oil. It was pandemonium.

By now, some kid from the engineering department had passed Hoagie up quickly, but not so quickly as to not plop an orange hard hat on top of his pilot's hat and shove a bit of berating into his face before scurrying off.

Numbuh Two silently wondered how a hard hat would be able to prevent someone from acquiring third-degree burns from the untamable furnaces. He found himself moving towards the steps that led to them nonetheless.

Once the girl with the flame suit spotted him descending down the metal stairs, her dark, almost ash, gray eyes seemed to light up. She beckoned him towards her with a gloved crooked finger. Hoagie, upon seeing her eyes fully trained on him, almost missed the last stair step as her attention caught him off guard. After all, no one had really paid him much of it so far, not counting the one boy distributing safety hats.

Hesitantly, he crossed over the concrete ground floor and sidled up to her with confused knitted eyebrows.

"Yeah?"

"You're Numbuh 2."

It wasn't a question. The way she spoke reminded him terribly of Charlie, minus the deep baritone tones. A part of him wondered how she knew of him. Hoagie had never actually viewed himself as a popular or a famous operative. Sure, he was a member of the illustrious Sector V and it wasn't like his face hadn't been featured in Young Genius Weekly, a popular worldwide science magazine. The girl who had identified him didn't look like she as actually into that sort of field. Regardless, she recognized him and wanted something from him.

The answer to his question came almost immediately when the girl turned around, yanked a white fire suit off a hook, and thrusted it into his chest.

"W-what…" he stuttered while looking back and forth from the suit in his arms and the engineering commander. "Hold up, what?"

"Come on, we've don't have time for jibber-jabber", she shot out with a bit of a Philadelphia city accent, whilst rolling her eyes and moving away from him and advancing past the other engineers trying to jolt loose the emergency cool-off switch. Her strides were long and purposeful and she didn't throw as much as a glance behind her to confirm whether or not he was following her. It didn't seem as though as he didn't have much of a choice. Reluctantly, he moved in behind her while trying to figure how to slide the one-piece suit over his current clothing. It would be a tight fit.

With the quick pace the girl was setting, they arrived at the main furnace' s entry hatch in no time. Hoagie was silently musing over the whole concept of getting burnt to a crisp while trying to zip up the front of his suit when she finally did actually turned around to face him, dark gray eyes, piercing into him like two silver bullets. Unintentionally, he stepped back as a natural reflex and almost ended up tripping over one of the thick black wires that snaked along the concrete floor. The small suit was making it even harder to breath down there in the fiery basement. The girl before him quirked an eyebrow before pulling the fire mask over her face. Her twanged voice sounded muffled from underneath the thick material.

"Well, you know what to do", she said nonchalantly, as if this happened everyday.

_Do I?, _Numbuh Two thought to himself. There was no need to voice the question; he knew.

This commander, whoever she was, wasn't really all for conversation. Without a moment's hesitation, she tightened her fire mask before yanking open the gargantuan furnace's back hatch, the temperature rising even more as a wave of heat pushed Hoagie back another half step. Not but a second later, she disappearing into the hungry flames of the furnace chamber.

The troubled boy stayed back for a bit. Intense heat wrapped around him and was making him sweat like a pig. He took yet another step back as the dancing fire seemed to reach out to him, trying to grab him into its clutches. A small squeaking sound was accidentally let loose from his dry throat.

Yeah, so he knew what he had to do.

As mentioned before, Numbuh Two was somewhat of an executive consultant for the construction of the new base. His opinion was highly coveted as he had gradually developed something akin to a modest title.

And to be truthful, such recognition was flattering and openly accept by his part. It wasn't irregular for someone (usually Kuki) to remind him not to let it all go to his head.

Of course, knowing so much about the base came with more pros than cons, however that didn't necessarily mean that there were absolutely no cons at all. It made one responsible for more things than one would actually desire. Being one of the few qualified to preform dangerous operations on the moon base (including emergency manual furnace disabling), Hoagie knew that it was more or less his responsibility to follow into the hatch and help out.

A girl engineer screamed as another gaping hole tore through the side of one of the oxygen tanks way down on the other side of the Engineering deck.

The pulsing red of everything was making his head swim. The yelling of the other operatives down there with him was escalating fast.

He had made his decision.

He swiveled on his heels and took a few steps away. There was no force on that moon that would be able to get him in that furnace, safety suit or not.

That is, until he glanced back at the open hatch and heard a piercing scream erupt from within. It had to have belonged to the commander; something wasn't right.

A groan sidled out of his mouth as he slowly turned around, knowing that there was no way he could leave to attend to some of the other, not so perilous, emergencies down in Engineering. The choice wasn't really much of a choice.

Hoagie drew in a sharp breath before yanking off both the hard hat and his aviators hat and grabbing the fire mask out of the suit's pocket and sliding it over his head. With a running charge, he dove into the raging fires of Hell.

* * *

><p>It was a staged attack. The assailants, however, were an unknown factor. Or so Numbuh 5 had figured. She was stuck on the central stage, blocking and trying her best to dodge the punches that sailed at her from all different directions. Whoever they were, they sure did have the upper hand. Abby had already guessed that they were wearing night-vision goggles or something of the sort. No one could fight this well in complete darkness except for Sector N and her hand had already come in contact with a something hard after blindly throwing a punch at one of her attackers. Who were they and what did they want?<p>

Abby fought harder in hopes of fending of all the hands the were reaching out for her, grabbing at her shirt and hair, ripping off the inaugural sash that had been given to her.


	8. Rescue

_**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Codename: Kids Next Door.**_

"So. Flippin. Hot", Numbuh Two muttered to himself as he traversed through the humongous furnace, even though he could barely hear himself over the loud roar of the fires that enveloped him.

He kept one hand on the wall as counted his steps. Careful measurement was critical if this undertaking were to not be a complete fiasco. If he was going to locate and activate the Class A Fire retarder foam chambers that were situated somewhere within the center of the furnace, well…he was going to have to make a good estimation and a quick one at that. Beads of sweat were constantly streaming down his face and it was making him feel as if he was swimming within the mask.

Another scream ripped through the flames and pierced Hoagie's ears through the thick material of his fire mask.

Right, there was that matter to deal with as well.

Making an about face, he started to move in the direction from which he thought he heard the Chief of Engineering scream. He found it very uncharacteristic that a tough-looking nut like her would suddenly burst out screaming. Numbuh Two attempted to call out to her.

"Hey, stay calm. I'm coming."

"Hurry!"

Hoagie found this a reason to be worried. This wasn't right. What had happened to her so suddenly that would have her so rattled? Only a minute ago had she nonchalantly pulled her own fire mask over her face and stepped right into the fiery hell this furnace presented. He hoped it wasn't her suit that was malfunctioning. Fire eats up oxygen like there's no tomorrow and if she were to run out of it, the end result would not be pretty.

Plus, a simple tear in the material or crack in her mask could spell out a crisp, burnt commander.

Hoagie moved as fast as the heavy suit would allow him, checking his own oxygen levels on intervals to ensure that he himself would have enough time to both save the girl and release the contents of the foam chambers.

"Keep talking", he called out again. There was no way that he'd be able to find her if he couldn't see nor hear anything. The operative wailed in pain as a response. Something was indeed terribly wrong. His labored footsteps continued to move towards the screaming and hysterics of the girl.

Just when he thought he was close enough to reach out and touch her, a powerful force knocked Numbuh Two, almost sending him flying and knocking him onto his back. He hit the metal floor of the giant flaming monster with a sharp clang.

His head knocked against the hard surface. The boy didn't think much of this until he was struggling to sit back up and look around. The visor he was using for vision almost instantly fogged over, obstructing any and all visual aid he may have had in the past. Just his luck.

* * *

><p>"Grab her already! We don't have all day, boys", a gruff voice rang out rather clearly through the pandemonium. Numbuh 5 didn't need to think twice when she blocked and chopped at the fists that were trying to get a good grip of her and drag her away.<p>

She had been keeping up for a good while now, but the forces were quickly becoming overwhelming because Abigail barely had anyway of telling between who was trying to help her and who was the enemy. No night training sessions were able to prepare her for this. The stadium had thrown everyone into a pitch-black darkness that felt as miserable as it looked.

Her knuckles ached from an especially hard blow she had landed on someone who had yanked especially hard on the long braid of her hair. She shook her hand out a bit as she landed a square kick at the groin of another assailant who she was struggling to battle.

"Numbuh 5!" a voice that was heavily stained with a familiar Jamaican accent called out. She turned towards the sound and tried to force her way towards it for the love of all humanity.

"Numbuh 5, it's me. Numbuh Infinity."

The distressed girl threw out a hand towards the voice and a larger hand surrounded and clasped hers. She could hear him begin to yell the same word over again as he took a firm grasp of her arm and begin to plow through people.

"RED, RED, RED", the foreign boy yelled at the top of his lungs as he led her through the madness. Abigail's feet could barely make contact with the ground at the pace they were setting.

"What's going on?!"

Numbuh Infinity didn't answer her, instead proceeding to yell "red" as he pulled her along faster. She could only barely make out the outline of enigmatic operative.

From what she could tell, they were at the far back of the stadium stage when a square hatch in platform was opened for them. Numbuh 5 had no time to actually see who had opened the trapdoor because she was promptly shoved down the hatch and into the light.

* * *

><p>Now practically blind, Hoagie picked himself up from his fall. His guess was that the force that had knocked him down in the first place was an intense wave a heat.<p>

"Numbuh 2!"

Terror was apparent in her voice and the sound sprung the boy into action.

"Please help me…someone…" he could hear the girl sob out. He wondered is she could actually hear him calling to her. Something nicked at Hoagie, reminding him that she had walked into the furnace fully assuming that he would follow her. She may as well have been regretting that foolishly prideful decision at that very moment. He moved towards her crying at a faster pace than he had been moving initially. All of a sudden the sobbing took a sharp turn, her vocal chords taking a crescendo into another gut wrenching scream as another heat blast ripped through the chamber.

Hoagie managed to keep his balance and not get knocked down again. He shot out a hand to the space next him and came in contact with something other than the walls.

He figured that, for whatever reason, she was kneeling down and that he had felt her head. Neither of them was exactly in a state where they could access damage or any other task alike. Taking a wild guess and extra precaution, he hastily felt along her back for the small oxygen tanks that were strapped horizontally to the small of her backside. Working at a lightning speed, he connected his own tank to hers, ensuring that she could breath. He didn't need his sight to do it. It was just one of the few random things he excelled it.

"Fastest I've ever done that. It should probably be a world record or something", the boy thought to himself as he worked. Humor was usually how he kept his calm in situations like this.

Then he lifted her up into his arms and moved with the limited haste that the fire suit gave him towards the metal wall. Numbuh 2 moved along the wall until it gave way and he fell backwards out of the gargantuan furnace.

Thankfully, a lucky placing of a foot kept him from crashing down completely. Hoagie reached up to rip off the pretty much useless fire mask while still backing away until they were a safe distance from the intense heat.

The air out there, without the mask on, felt like a freezer compared to the high temperatures of the furnace. His brown hair clung to his face as he felt sweat continue to make rivers down his face and neck. He shook his head in an attempt to remove some of the loose sweat from his face, sending it flying to the concrete all around him.

He took stock of his surroundings. There were more kids down in Engineering than before. There were definitely more things on fire. The boy looked down at the girl in his arms and instantly saw the scorch marks where her suit had failed. She was lucky to still be alive. Hoagie laid the girl down before yelling out for help. There were several young males, slightly younger than him, running past him, probably heading towards the other side of Engineering. The volume of his voice was enough to startle them, the sound easily carrying over the alarms, which he noted were still blaring away. They came over to him and he simply gestured to the injured commander. When the boys saw who she was, their eyes widened in disbelief before they nodded and kneeled down to administer to her. Squatting next to the girl and assisting the younger ones, Numbuh 2 silently realized that the underground deck was no longer pulsing red, but blue, indicating Base Oxygen Failure.

"Just Wonderful", he thought while running a hand through his exposed locks of hair atop his head.

As he removed the girl commander's own mask, he wondered where his aviator hat was. He couldn't help but feel naked without it.

_**Don't Kill Me. I'm Sorry. I'm Sorry. I'm So Sorry. But you've gotta understand…I'm a lazy mothersucker. However, I have difficulties being patient to and it's not fair that I make you guys wait for chappies so long. **_

_**Anyone that was led here by alerts, well, a special apology to you guys. This won't happen again, scout's honor. **_

_**This chappie is my Christmas gift to you all. I am adding chappies to nearly all my stories today so check out my profile, kay?**_

_**Please tell what you all think so far with a review. Short, long, I love em' all (that's what she said).**_

_**Oh, and don't forget to favorite this story. They (along with reviews) make me feel all fuzzy on the inside. **_


	9. Restoration

Newfound Independency

Chapter 9

By: CC333

******Disclaimer: I do not own Codename: Kids Next Door**

The next few hours moved in slow motion. The lower levels of the moon base were in complete disarray. Multiple fires had raged without mercy and burned a good chunk of equipment past usability. It was a good thing that the operatives down in the badly crippled Engineering were keeping their relative cool. That was the one thing with working alongside others in this particular division; most had the natural disposition of remaining placid and rational, especially after the problem had been diagnosed.

Too bad no one had a clue as to what was going on, so all they could do was fight the symptoms, which included vicious fires, live wires, and spills a plenty. The lower levels of the base were in absolute chaos. Hoagie was never one to have a short fuse, but with all this fire and incompetent cadets roaming around everywhere, his patience was being tested. There was simply just too much going on, too much on the line at once.

"Deep breaths, Gilligan," he muttered to himself while attempting to calm himself down. Upon inhaling, his throat was hammered with a succession of hacks and deep coughs. The soot in the air was becoming thick. The conditions down there were rapidly becoming completely unacceptable. Something would have to be done soon or else they all may be in deeper trouble than originally estimated. By a long shot.

This thought did nothing to help steady out his already troubled head. In order to not completely lose it, he began to make a mental list of essentials that needed immediate attention. This included the three main furnaces that were burning out of control, the control panels that need re-systemizing, and the fact that he needed a flippin-giant mop to clean up the mess. Numbuh 2 couldn't help but think about how all these tasks would be much easier to deal with if the official Head of Engineering wasn't out cold on a cot somewhere.

He wondered how long it would take for all these mess to be cleaned up. The remaining oxygen tanks were saved and being closely monitored by the time he had emerged with the department head from the out-of-control furnace. He had missed this event but it was all right. Besides, he was a bit busy saving countless lives from a hot, explosive death.

No biggie.

Hoagie, having recently found his hat on the concrete, was genuinely relieved at that point. Something familiar in all of this disarray was marginally comforting. Of course there were still all the poor souls depending on him as if he were their _mom_ or something.

"Numbuh 2, help me with this!"

"Numbuh 2, how do we stop the leakage?!"

_Numbuh2Numbuh2Numbuh2Numbuh2Numbuh2_

He has just about had it with kid after kid calling out to him, dragging him by the arm to their problems, and begging for his assistance. All while he had to brainstorm why the main grid was down. For once, his abundance of patience was running thin. Never in his life had so many people been dependent on him. In the past, only his small team of four other kids needed him this badly.

Great, now he was thinking about Sector V.

Shaking his head, Numbuh 2 grabbed the low-hanging sides of his pilot hat and closed his eyes, trying his best to focus on the distressed boy who was explaining to him about how he couldn't find his twin in all of this mess. They had been walking at a rather quick pace across the main floor of Engineering. Hoagie was on power trip to the main grid's utility board and established that nothing would stop him along the way. So when this small boy, no older than nine for sure, fought through the panic and other operatives flocking around Numbuh 2, he instantly began walking on his heels, yapping on and on about how worried he was with the absence of his brother. Hoagie, one whose always had a caring, concerned disposition, couldn't bring himself to dismiss the boy, just as he had stood and listened and helped all the other operatives that had requested his assistance.

By the time they had reached the door that led to his destination, Hoagie had assured the young operative that his brother was probably just busy with the reconstruction efforts and would be floating around here somewhere.

To be honest, Hoagie was more perturbed than he had let on. Something didn't settle right with new, little kids running around while Engineering was in this state. Even he himself had already had many close scrapes with injury within the last 45 minutes and that wasn't even mentioning the whole furnace undertaking before that. The moonbase's health clinic would extra busy in the near future…

The door of the main grid's utility room had an access code pad similar to the ones for the vacpods. He entered in the code from before and, luckily, it shortly chimed a sharp beep twice before the jolt of the retracting locks vibrated his hand. A draft of cool air began to seep out through the crack in the door as it was opened. Stepping inside, a chill ran up the boy's back as he looked around the white, cold room. This may have been the one room in the entire base where the cords and wires weren't running across the floor or cascading through the ceiling. It looked exceptionally empty, when not considering the multitude of control panels around the room. The four walls were whitewashed and bare with the exception of a number of dark screens. A thin fog obscured the sight of the tile floor.

"Why is it so flippin' cold in here?" he muttered to himself while moving further into the room and running one hand along the chilly control panels. It wouldn't surprise him if he went home with some sort of illness with all this radical temperature change. For at least the tenth time that day, Hoagie thanked the heavens that his little brother had caught something that had been going around at school and therefore couldn't come up to the moon base for the Inauguration and, more importantly, not be in this mess.

None of the large displays mounted onto the walls were on, he noted. Crossing over to the other end of the room, He stuck his tongue out and made a "hmmm" noise while inspecting the controls before fiddling with the various buttons and knobs. When trying to work the system through its own devices didn't work, Hoagie got down onto his hands and knees and yanked off the large panel which had never been properly bolted in the first place, causing him to roll his eyes before beginning to shift through the various wires in the limited light he was provided.

"Green wire, green wire, green wire," he muttered as he worked, being careful not to disrupt any of the other ones too much. The green wire he was looking for happened to be near the very back of the panel. Usually the most neatly hidden, it happened to be the thickest and most dangerous out of them all. Hoagie bit his tongue harder as he was forced to move himself into an awkward position on the floor in order to see correctly. The large wire wasn't even connected to the bright yellow port that provided power. Without any further hesitation, Hoagie simply plugged it in. A searing pain ran up his arm and the room seemed to spin rapidly before dipping into darkness.

It wasn't until after he woke up, that he realized his mistake. Numbuh 2 had forgotten to express care and protect himself before hooking up that much power in one instant. The end result had knocked him out and left him with a scorched hand. The boy sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth as he sat up and accessed his surroundings. The place was still cold, but the remaining lights had turned on and the screens were now active. The handy PDA device around his wrist brought him relief by displaying and announcing the time; he hadn't been out for too long. He managed to stand back up without further injuring his hand. Unfortunately, that hand happened to be the one he favored. The next 20 minutes of restoring the main grid was done carefully and slowly with his slightly clumsier hand.

The largest of all the screens that displayed the power flow and usage throughout the moon base was directly above him. Its speakers began to make a faint beeping noise and a red dot began to flash on the map, indicating to the storage area beneath the stadium. Hoagie looked though the locks of brown hair that kept getting in the way and gazed at the screen's readings in disbelief. Whatever was happening down there was powerful.

A bang on the door to the grid room startled him. The next thing he knew, a hole was blasted into the door. After the dust cleared a bit, he would make out the faint online of a girl. She stepped through the dust, revealing her identity. Numbuh Two did a double take at the Chief Of Engineering whose head and arms were bandaged up rather abundantly. Her face was red and her expression could have scared a million adults away.

"There. Is. Someone. On. My. Moon. Base." She hissed at him though her teeth, "And. They're. Uninvited."

The boy noted her stacatto sentence and uneven breathing and felt like hiding. She glanced around the grid room. "You did it. You fixed the Main Power Grid for me. Smart kid."

He could only manage an uneasy grin in response while scratching the back of his neck with his one useful hand.

"Come on," she barked, taking long strides towards him and grabbing his cold shoulder, "There's something fishy going on at the stadium and I'm not havin' it."

Before Hoagie could mention what he saw on the display screen, she was dragging him out of the refrigerator of a room and across the main floor of Engineering.

It was getting harder to think straight. All his friends would be in the stadium. His only hope was that they were okay. The boy's eyes widened as he realized that Abigail was supposed to deliver her speech. The one he had helped her with (albeit he had just mostly given her goofy suggestions). His fist tightened at the thought of someone hurting her.

_**Oops. Thought I had uploaded this already until I received a review saying I was wayyy behind. My apologies. Between writing and doing well in school, there wasn't much time. I'll attempt to make it up by updating more frequently. Though I must say, there won't be another update until a month for a month because I will be studying abroad until July. Thank you for your support.**_


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